Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

Preparation Guide 2014

There are three progenitors of the cultural studies movement. The first path
traces through Europe, beginning in orthodox Marxism. (Later critical theorists
point out that orthodox Marxism is like neo-Aristotelianism: it is not Marx,
it is interpreters of Marx.) Orthodox Marxism, a mechanistic theory of
society, distrusted rhetoric, believing it was the source of ideology that masked
the reality of historical materialism, thus keeping the working class in chains.
In Western Europe during and after World War II, that notion was critiqued.
Instead, the problems in the Soviet Union taught that even Communism, steeped
as it was in Marxist-Stalinist ideology, was based in ideology. Thus, Neo-Marxism
came into vogue. Reinterpreting historical materialism into a contextualist
theory of society, the developments we today know as "continental philosophy"
took hold of social inquiry. Critical theory was hatched in the Frankfurt
school including Horkeimer, Adorno, and their student Habermas. In France,
a series of sociologists and philosophers developed social theory. In Birmingham,
England, this developed into Stuart Hall's version of cultural studies. Critical
Studies had come to the United States with the exiles from Germany. But in the
oppressive environment of the Cold War, anything hinting at Marxism was dangerous.
Instead, the ideas were worked subtley into media studies, particularly by James
Carey.

But there evolved another strain in the United States within Communication
Studies. It began in the cultural strains in the work of Kenneth Burke. During
the 1930s Burke had proposed cultural analyses of the symbolic action within
social ritual. His work with such cultural symbols as "the monetary synthesis"
initially influenced scholars in in Sociology and Anthropology, in the work
of Hugh Dalziel Duncan and Clifford Geertz. Within the linguistic turn, these
ideas emphasized the use of rhetoric in ordinary everyday discourse and in rituals
of social order that created the character of culture. Late in the century,
those following this lead in communication picked up the thought of the continental
philosophers, critical theory, and British cultural studies and cultural studies
within communication developed.

Preparation for discussion

Week 1: (December 2)

Read the material indicated below. Come prepared with either (1) concepts you did not understand tied to page numbers, or (2) what you take to be key concepts. We will organize discussions around this.

Week 2: (December 9)

Foundations of the Move

Based on your reading, what is the difference between critical theory and cultural studies?

How do these theories build on one another? Pay attention to chronological order and references as you work out how each author extends or revises the theories we read in the introduction week.

How is power constructed in each of these theories? Is power always a negative thing? Or, like Foucault, is there a positive notion of power?

How is culture variously defined by these authors? What role does rhetoric play in culture for them? Similarly, does language create culture, or culture create language?

What is rhetoric’s contribution to critical theory? Cultural studies?

Where are the edges of the critical/cultural theory move? Where are the places of overlap and difference from earlier moves? As you read, consider how the critical/cultural move is different from and similar to the freedom/domination move and the identity/subjectivity move. What other moves does this overlap with?

Cultural Studies in a Post-Mass Media Age

Althusser observes that the press, television and radio function as “Ideological State Apparatuses.” How is that similar or different from today?

Some would argue that we are in a “post-mass media age,” that is, we don’t study traditional forms of media as much as “new media.” Does this change the field of cultural studies?

Horkheimer and Adorno talk about enlightenment as mass deception. How does Hall define the project of cultural studies?

How does the study of propaganda inform the Dave Tell piece on Walter Lippman?

What is the think-tank culture, how do we study it and is democracy enhanced by it?

Recent Works: Materiality, Post-Modernity, Travelers Metaphor

How do Greene and Kuswa define the post-modernism and late capitalism?

Is the post-modern move a material move or a theoretical move?

Foss and Foss describe theorists are two types of travelers, what kind of traveler are you?

Conversation in Communication Field

How do the different scholarly voices in the field of communication talk about the role of cultural studies/critical theory in our scholarship?

Does this interdisciplinary work hinder or problematize the identity of the field?

How can we reconcile these problems? How do we make sure we don’t lose our identity?

Hess, Aaron, and Art Herbig. "Recalling the Ghosts of 9/11: Convergent Memorializing at the Opening of the National 9/11 Memorial." International Journal Of Communication 19328036, No. 7 (January 2013): 2207-2230.